1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to digital computer systems and in particular to methods and systems for managing processes in a digital computer system through user defined indicia.
2. Description of the Related Art
In multiprocessing operating systems such as OS/2.RTM.and UNIX.RTM., processes are the execution entities in the operating system environment. The operating system has a variety of service functions that are very important to the performance, usability, and manageability of these processes. Some examples of operating system process service functions are the process monitor, which monitors the status of processes executing on the system, and can generate a display on the user's monitor showing the status of current processes, process synchronization, which synchronizes the execution of processes, and process communication, which passes information between processes. Although such operating system process service functions are basic to the operation of a computer system, the implementation of these process service functions is often complicated and expensive in terms of processor overhead.
The process monitor service function displays the status of a process. The process status display includes the process ID, which is assigned to the process by the operating system when the process is invoked, and a program name. Without the program name, the users cannot recognize the function of the process. When multiple processes are spawned by the same program, each spawned process will have the same program name. Thus, program names cannot be used to uniquely identity a process, particularly when multiple processes are created with the same program. In addition, each process has a unique process ID that is created at run time, dynamically. From the manageability point of view, process IDs are difficult to use because the ID number that will be assigned to a process cannot be predicted beforehand. Therefore, there is needed a method to identify individual processes when using the process monitor service function.
Process management service functions allow a user or process to manage and control the processes being executed on the user's computer. In UNIX.RTM., processes can be grouped by user IDs or group IDs only. In OS/2.RTM., there are no mechanisms to group processes for process management. It would be beneficial to provide a method and system of grouping processes from the application point of view, in order to facilitate process management.
Process synchronization is a process service function that allows the execution of multiple processes to be synchronized There are many process synchronization mechanisms that are provided in modern operating systems: examples are Semaphores, and Locks. However, for simple applications, these mechanisms are too expensive and too difficult to use. What is needed is a simple method of synchronizing processes that has very little overhead.
Process communication is a process service function that enables information to be passed between processes. Message queues and shared memory are the most popular ways for implementing process communication, but it takes multiple steps to establish message queues and shared memory among processes. Moreover, message queues and shared memory are very valuable system resources that must be consumed by such process communications. For simple applications, a process communication mechanism that has very little overhead and takes almost no initialization steps is needed.
The present invention of a method and system of process identification by User Defined Process Variables provides a simple, low-overhead, dynamic mechanism for solving these problems and limitations of operating system process service functions.